I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 8, 2024] The Decemberists     

This was our fourth time seeing The Decemberists (which is frankly too low a number for how much we love them).  But this show was on my birthday!  Imagine that.

I have actually never been to a show on my birthday before, mostly because I like to spend my birthday with my family.  But this was a band that my wife wanted to see as well, so we invited the kids along too, for a fun birthday night.

Sadly, my daughter was on crutches so she chose to stay home, but my son came even though he didn’t think he knew The Decemberists very well.

It turns out he knows them from osmosis and recognized a lot of songs from having heard his parents play them.  He was also pleasantly surprised by how much they rocked (my wife likes the folkier side and she plays them more).

And the show opened with a folky vibe.

There were light fixtures out front and Colin Meloy wandered out with his acoustic guitar and played “Red Right Ankle.”  He sounded great and the ambient lighting was perfect.  He described it as singing in a grotto.  Then Jenny Conlee came out with her accordion and the rest of the band came out soon after.  Nate Query with is upright bass, Chris Funk at his guitar and Lizzy Ellison singing as they played a lovely June Hymn.

They stayed acoustic for the new song All I Want is You complete with Victor Nash on horns and keys.  John Moen came out, the cool lights were removed and the “grotto” was taken away.  They spread out and used the full stage which was delicately designed with floral patterns and curtains.

With the full band out they played Don’t Carry it All with Chris Funk playing lap steel guitar.  Then they played the new song Burial Ground, after which Colin apologized for rhyming the word malaria in the song in case anyone in the audience was currently suffering from it.

The Decemberists could play pretty much anything in their catalog and I’d be happy.  And now that they have so many albums out there are fewer and fewer older songs that they can squeeze in.  So if they can only fit one part of The Crane Wife, I’ll take it.

After a rousing and fun The Sporting Life, with a little coda from The Smiths, Ellison got to show off her vocal chops with a fantastic The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing.  The Hazards of Love remains my favorite album of theirs and I love any song they play from it (this was the only one tonight).  But the heavy jamming during The Crossing was great–with some serious metal chords blasting out between the Hammond organ chords.

Chris Funk played bass sax while Nash played trumpet.  They did a jazz improv (Colin joked that they were going to be releasing a jazz improv album soon) before launching into what proved to be my favorite new song Oh No.  There was one more new song played–the pretty Long White Veil.  The new album, by the way, wouldn’t be out for a month, and it’s really neat hearing new songs for the first time live.  Although realistically no one wants all new songs.

So then it was back to the big hits, like a huge singalong of Make You Better and the darker Severed (which sounded reinvented and rather different from the album).  Fantastic backing vocals in both songs.

Without sounding like I’m complaining, I do wish that they’d play something other than 16 Military Wives when they dip into the old albums.  It is, without a doubt, a super fun song, but I’ve seen them play it 3 times now and I would love to hear Los Angeles, I’m Yours or Billy Liar or even the Youth and Beauty Brigade!  But it is fun to bounce along to Wives, especially now that they have the horns and that “La de da de da” refrain. Oh, hell, they can leave it in.

They ended the set in a somewhat surprising way by playing The Beginning Song.  But it was fun to sing along to it along with the rest of the room.

After a brief encore they came back and thrilled me beyond reason by playing Joan in the Garden, the 20 minute song from their new album.  I’m not sure if anyone else was delighted by it but it was amazing to hear this multipart epic live. It was fun watching what everyone did during the slow part–Jenny on piano (which isn’t on the album) and Lizzy playing the percussive bells.

It was great to feel the song get progressively louder until after about 7 minutes when the band was rocking full on and Colin was practically screaming the lyrics.  I wondered how they would do the five minutes of strange effects and sounds, but they pulled it off.  The whole band faced away from us as they manipulated any and everything to make the wall of noise that leads into the final rocking metal ending, complete with blinding white lights splashed against a dark blue background.

I would love to see it again–I hope someone filmed the whole thing.

And then they ended it with one of the heaviest riffs in the canon.  It was catharsis played live.

I assume they will never play that song live again and I’m delighted that I got to see it.

And that was that.

Boy, I hope they come back again soon.  And a reminder to Colin.  They canceled a show in New Jersey a few years ago because his voice was shot and he promised they’d be back.  We’re holding you to that promise!

	2024	2022
	Red Right Ankle Ψ [2]	The Crane Wife 3 Ö [3]
	June Hymn ⊗ [2]	The Island: Come and See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning Ö
	All I Want is You ‰	Shiny Š (With Rusholme Ruffians by The Smiths outro) [2]
	Don’t Carry It All ⊗	Burial Ground [new]
	Burial Ground ‰	Calamity Song ⊗ [2]
	The Crane Wife 1  Ö [3]	Lake Song ϖ [2]
	The Sporting Life ∏ (ending had intro of This Charming Man)	Sucker’s Prayer ⇒
	The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing ♥ [2]	The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid ♥
	Oh No! ‰	Severed ⇒
	Long White Veil ‰	Down By the Water ⊗ [3]
	Make You Better ϖ [3]	16 Military Wives ∏ [2]
	Severed ⇒ [2]	I Was Meant for the Stage Ψ
	16 Military Wives ∏ [3]	Encore
	A Beginning Song ϖ [2]	Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes ⇒
	encore	Sons & Daughters Ö
	Joan in the Garden ‰

 

2017	2015
The Crane Wife 1 & 2 Ö [2]	The Singer Addresses His Audience ϖ
The Crane Wife 3 Ö [2]	The Infanta ∏
Down By the Water ⊗ [2]	Calamity Song ⊗
Shiny Š	Rox in the Box ⊗
We Both Go Down Together ∏	Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect ©
The Wrong Year ϖ [2]	Make You Better ϖ
Make You Better ϖ [2]	The Wrong Year ϖ
Red Right Ankle Ψ	Carolina Low ϖ
Lake Song  ϖ	The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone) ♥
Everything is Awful ⇒	A Bower Scene ♥
We All Die Young ⇒	Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) ♥
The Abduction of Margaret ♥	The Rake’s Song ♥
The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing ♥	The Crane Wife 1 & 2 Ö
O Valencia! Ö [2]	The Crane Wife 3 Ö
The Chimbley Sweep Ψ	Down by the Water ⊗
encore	16 Military Wives ∏
The Tain ¥	O Valencia! Ö
encore 2	A Beginning Song ϖ
June Hymn ⊗	encore
	12/17/12 ϖ
	The Mariner’s Revenge Song ∏